Dreamworld CEO addresses media

Should Christian refugees get priority?

Tony Abbott says he specially wants to help 'persecuted minorities' fleeing Syria, but does that mean Christians should get preferential treatment?

While Canberra has been more inclined to the US-nominated justification of the "collective self defence" of Iraq – at whose invitation we and the US are waging war against Islamic State insurgents – the responsibility to protect has obvious attractions for any "just" society.

This most basic obligation owed by the strong to the vulnerable, is also a viable justification for a non-discriminatory crisis-based refugee policy.

Some government ministers have been specifically advocating a Christian bias in refugee policies. Photo: Marko Drobnjakovic

And right now, that is what the Abbott government is weighing. Within the question of how many to take – Labor says 10,000, the Greens nominate 20,000, and at least one Liberal, 50,000 – there are legitimate, and perhaps some less legitimate arguments to be mulled.

One such argument is the idea being pushed mostly (but not exclusively) from the conservative right, for a Christians-first policy. That is, if we must increase the intake from Syria, then we should do it with Syrians most like us.

Advertisement

It is an argument with some attractions - at least superficially. And it is one, which reading between the lines, seems to have found favour with Tony Abbott who says the people of Syria are caught "between the hammer of the death cult and its mass executions and the anvil of the Assad regime and its chemical weapons".

"What we need to do is to try to ensure that people can be safe in country as well as trying to ensure that people can be safe out of country and that people who are in camps, particularly persecuted minorities, women and children, have the prospect of a better life," he told parliament.

"Persecuted minorities" is a term being read as code for Christians, and that inevitably will be read as a statement against Muslims.

Other ministers have been more explicit with both Malcolm Turnbull and Eric Abetz - neither of whom is too fond of the other - specifically advocating a Christian bias. Julie Bishop has also noted the plight of Christian minorities in the Middle-East arguing their situation will remain precarious beyond the current war.

There is an argument that Christian minorities in Syria are among the most vulnerable and therefore deserve help. But there is also a suspicion that many on the right rather transparently use this argument ex post facto to bolster the view that Christians will be more easily integrated in Australia.

In any event, religious preferencing is only thinly removed from racial preferencing and thus makes people in a pluralist democracy uncomfortable. As NSW Premier Mike Baird has noted, the desirable approach is a non-discriminatory immigration policy based on the merits of each claim for safe haven.